A small prominence slowly rose further up above the sun, then fell apart and back into the sun over about seven hours (Dec. 6, 2017). Prominences, notoriously unstable, are cooler clouds of particles tethered not far above the sun by magnetic forces. When it stretched out, its distance above the sun was several times the size of Earth. Images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. These images are colorized since we cannot "see" ultraviolet light. In this case, a yellow tone was used instead of the normal red tint we use for this 304 Angstrom wavelength.

Did you ever get caught in a meteor shower? If yes, then every minute or so the sky sparked with fleeting flashes of light. This was the fate of the pictured astrophotographer during last year's Perseids meteor shower. During the featured three-hour image composite, about 90 Perseids rained down above Lake Duolun of Inner Mongolia, China. If you trace back the meteor streaks, you will find that most of them appear to radiate from a single constellation -- in this case Perseus. In fact, you can even tell which meteors are not Perseids because they track differently. Tonight promises to be another good night to get caught in a meteor shower because it is the peak for the Geminids. Gemini, the shower radiant, should rise shortly after sunset and be visible most of the night.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

When the director of the Mannheim Planetarium in Germany saw the new "Auroras" film by Kwon O Chul at the Jena FullDome Festival he started to think about licensing it for his star theater. With some support of ZEISS he finally produced a German version, which premiered yesterday with great success. Guess why the planetarium looks green and red from the outside during the premiere night.

Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not only cleared up but lit up with a spectacular auroral display. Arms went high in the air, patience and experience paid off, and the creative featured image was captured as a composite from three separate exposures. The setting is a summit of the Austnesfjorden fjord close to the town of Svolvear on the Lofoten islands in northern Norway. The time was early 2014. Although our Sun is nearing Solar Minimum and hence showing relatively little surface activity, holes in the upper corona have provided some nice auroral displays over the last few months.

This composition in stardust covers over 8 degrees on the northern sky. The mosaicked field of view is west of the familiar Pleiades star cluster, toward the zodiacal constellation Aries and the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. At right in the deep skyscape is bluish Epsilon Arietis, a star visible to the naked-eye and about 330 light-years away. Reflecting starlight in the region, dusty nebulae LBN762, LBN753, and LBN743 sprawl left to right across the field, but are likely some 1,000 light-years away. At that estimated distance, the cosmic canvas is over 140 light-years across. Near the edge of a large molecular cloud, their dark interiors can hide newly formed stars and young stellar objects or protostars from prying optical telescopes. Collapsing due to self-gravity, the protostars form around dense cores embedded in the molecular cloud.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

A prominence at the sun's edge shifted and slithered back and forth over a one-day period (Nov. 29-30, 2017). Prominences are strands of charged particles suspended above the sun's surface that are pulled and tugged by magnetic forces. This kind of close-up also shows the kind of dynamic activity taking place all over the sun's surface. The bright area further down from the prominence is an active region, an area of intense tangles of magnetic forces. Towards the end of the clip, it blasts out a small stream of plasma (captured in the still). The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

Last Saturday the Planetarium in the city of Suhl located at the southern slope of the Thuringian Forest in Germany celebrated the 40th birthday of its Planetarium. ZEISS delivered and installed the very first SKYMASTER ZKP 2 in Suhl in 1977.

On the occasion of the birthday, the Suhl observatory and planetarium invited to an Astronomical Day with talks on most topical themes like the first detection of an extrasolar heavy metal planet. Dr. Martin Wiechmann, head of the ZEISS Planetarium Division, talked about the history of the planetarium and his vision of its future. Congratulations to Suhl for 40 successful years of public astronomical education!

What's happening on the horizon? The horizon itself, past a spinach field in Guatemala, shows not only trees but a large volcano: the Volcán de Fuego (Volcano of Fire). The red glow at the top of the volcano is hot lava. But your eye may also be drawn to the blue circle above the horizon on the left. This circle surrounds the Moon and, together with other colors, is called a corona. A corona is caused by diffraction of light -- here moonlight -- by small water droplets in the Earth's intervening atmosphere. A break in the clouds on the right shows stars and even the planet Saturn far beyond the volcano. Although Volcán de Fuego frequently undergoes low-level activity, the astrophotographer considered himself lucky to capture the scene just during an explosive eruption in late September.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Four countries, four adventures, four unforgottable experiences. One of dreams of eclipse chaser’s is to see – or better to successfully photograph – all solar and lunar eclipses of one year. And to me, this dream finally came true. This image shows all 4 eclipses of 2017, both solar and lunar in February and then in August. Image of each eclipse has been captured with similar equipment which allowed me to add them together in this overview in correct angular sizes of the Moon. Much more you will find out on my website: http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=3504

The last Supermoon of 2017 was visible Sunday night thru Monday morning this week. Here it is setting directly over Beech Mountain’s 5506’ summit seen from just outside Banner Elk, NC Monday morning around 7:30am. A 300mm telephoto lens at f8 for 1/500th of a second was used for this photo.